I love my job

Our time here in Papua New Guinea is coming to a close. This time around. Our exploratory trip has been an absolutely wonderful experience, all in all. I've loved getting to know some of the other missionaries with whom we will be working, and I've loved meeting others of the missionaries here who will not be on the field by the time that we get here long term. Already I know that Elizabeth and I are looking forward to coming back for our first full term. The people here have been super friendly and helpful, and you can see the excitement in their eyes as they see scripture being created in their language.

Last week I was spending most of my time in the publishing office here in Madang, and my project was to work with one of the literacy guys who was in from the bush. He had written four stories in his language that he wanted to turn into books so that he could use them in his village. I had the opportunity to go over these four stories with him, and get them typed into the computer. Then he sketched up illustrations for them and we scanned them, and after a few more editing checks we had created four books that can now be used to help teach people to read. In the next room over Elizabeth was working with men from the same language group helping them to use the computer to make a first draft of Genesis in their language. That draft will go through some editing to make it grammatically correct, and then numerous checks to make sure it is a good translation, but she helped them to get them started on their way to having Genesis when before they did not have it. How awesome is that? And while we are only here for a short time this trip, we are just getting a small taste of what we will be doing with our lives here in PNG.

I love my job.

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Back to Madang

Flexibility is a virtue. Elizabeth and I have finally made it back to Madang. Our trip out to the village was only supposed to be 2 weeks long, but ended up being right around 3 due to some miscommunication. That's alright though, because during our extra week in the bush we had a ton of awesome experiences, from spearfishing in a nearby river, to petting a baby owl. During our time there we helped organize the literacy center, helped clear a garden plot with one of the families there, played soccer, and helped with a medical course. We cleaned wounds, and learned how to make bags. We ate fire roasted yams and discovered custard as a dessert option. We watched and participated in Bible studies (which doubled as great literacy classes), and we worked on putting fiberglass patches on the missionary's boat. We rejoiced in the birth of the village's newest baby, and we mourned with the village at the funeral of a young woman.

It truly was a fascinating few weeks for us, and really was confirmation for Elizabeth and I that we want to spend our time in PNG in a village setting as much as possible. For now, though, we're back to the daily grind of office work and translation checks here in Madang. Elizabeth has a checking session coming up where she will be going over a translation done by nationals with them. I was supposed to be doing a literacy workshop with another people group, but that has been postponed to a time after we will have already left country. So for me it is back to finding odd jobs around the office and helping where I can. For instance, today I filled in the text on 20 or so shell books to be used with literacy work and health education here in the city. T'was 4 and a half hours well spent, in my mind. I'm rather looking forward to seeing what I get to do tomorrow!  

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A slight delay...

I'm spending my birthday in the jungle. And not just the general, “oh, I'm in a nation that has jungles” type of jungle. I'm in the rainforest. In the bush. The kind of place where I get to go fishing by cutting up a vine and throwing it in the water and letting it kill the fish before I stab them with my spear. That kind of place.

But I expected that. What I didn't expect was my extra week here. You see, somewhere along the line we ended up not getting our helicopter ride out of here booked. It was one of those moments where every body thought somebody else had done it, but really nobody had. And 2 weeks in the village becomes three. I suppose that's alright though. There are plenty of things to do out here. For instance, the fishing I talked about above. Or cutting down trees to make room for planting crops, or playing frisbee. All good things. Then there’s the maintenance items for the missionary that lives here. I have been working on patching up the bottom of her fiberglass canoe so that she can use it again to get to town, instead of relying on helicopters and other people's canoes. Unfortunately, I am really bad with fiberglass. It is not a pretty looking patch job. So I have a lot of sanding to do, too. Along with pumping water into the head tank every day. (That's a tank of water that sits on top of the house so that gravity can provide us with running water) And whatever other maintenance items that she comes up with. I don't mind doing the extra work, I just wish I better knew what it was that I was doing. But she likes to have the help, and really, I could use the training, so it works out well for everyone.

Nevertheless, that's one week longer without a coca cola. Oh well.

*written Oct. 2nd

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